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N0KFQ > TODAY 09.06.13 16:11l 63 Lines 3023 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 9
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Sent: 130609/1455Z 43@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.55
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Jun 9, 1856:
Mormon handcart pioneers depart for Salt Lake City
In an extraordinary demonstration of resolve and fortitude,
nearly 500 Mormons leave Iowa City and head west for Salt Lake
City carrying all their goods and supplies in two-wheeled
handcarts. Of all the thousands of pioneer journeys to the West
in the 19th century, few were more arduous than those undertaken
by the so-called Handcart Companies from 1856 to 1860.
The secular and religious leader of the Mormons, Brigham Young,
had established Salt Lake City as the center of a new Utah
sanctuary for the Latter-day Saints in 1847. In subsequent years,
Young worked diligently to encourage and aid Mormons who made the
difficult overland trek to the Great Salt Lake. In 1856, however,
a series of poor harvests left the church with only a meager fund
to help immigrants buy wagons and oxen. Young suggested a cheaper
mode of travel: "Let them come on foot with handcarts or
wheelbarrows; let them gird up their loins and walk through and
nothing shall hinder or stay them."
Amazingly, many Mormons followed his advice. On this day in 1856,
a band of 497 Mormons left Iowa City, Iowa, and began the more
than 1,000-mile trek to Salt Lake City. They carried all their
goods in about 100 two-wheeled handcarts, most of which were
heaped with the maximum load of 400 to 500 pounds. Each family
usually had one cart, and the father and mother took turns
pulling while any children old enough helped by pushing.
The handcart immigrants soon ran into serious problems. The
Mormon craftsmen who had constructed the handcarts back in Iowa
City had chosen to use wooden axles instead of iron in order to
save time and money. Sand and dirt quickly wore down the wood,
and water and heat made the axles splinter and crack. As the
level terrain of the prairies gave way to the more rugged country
of the Plains, the sheer physical challenge of hauling a
500-pound cart began to take its toll. One British immigrant who
was a skilled carpenter wrote of having to make three coffins in
as many days.
Some of the pilgrims gave up. Two girls in one handcart group
left to marry a pair of miners they met along the way. The
majority, however, struggled on and eventually reached the Salt
Lake Valley. Over the course of the next four years, some 3,000
Mormon converts made the overland journey by pushing and pulling
heavy-laden handcarts. Better planning and the use of iron axles
made the subsequent immigrations slightly easier than the first,
and some actually made the journey more quickly than if they had
used ox-drawn wagons. Still, once the church finances had
recovered, Young's followers returned to using conventional
wagons. The handcart treks remained nothing less than heroic. One
Mormon girl later estimated that she and her family had each
taken over a million steps to reach their goal, pushing and
pulling a creaking wooden handcart the entire way.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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